Wild Season
by em.matheson
Summary: Only the Falls whispered the truth, suspended somewhere between the known and the unknown, but no one was listening the night Caroline Forbes disappeared without a backward glance. What did she do, where did she go? Truth is, she doesn't really know.
1. Chapter 1

I've had this idea skittering about in my head for a while but I needed the song to cement it in for me. It's got a bit of Outlander about it but begins before the Salvatore brothers stepped foot in Mystic Falls of the new millennia. Enjoy.

 **ONE.**

 **I stay alone, skipped a stone, from the known to the unknown  
Feeding fires, spinning tyres, getting even  
And for a while, I made you smile, saw the voodoo in you child  
Girl, you know you are the reason  
It's been a wild season  
And the hunting never stops  
'Till everybody drops**

 **(Wild Season by Banks & Steelz Feat. Florence Welch)**

* * *

Standing twenty feet away hadn't been the same. Hell, standing five feet away had been different. Standing on the edge of the cliff, the incessant crashing of water hitting water at a force she can't even fathom, it's entirely different. Fear's grip was cold around her heart.

She hadn't jumped.

"It's alright, Care," Matt laughs, throwing an arm around her, "it's a pretty big jump." His tone is easy, casually teasing, but she still bristles. Caroline Forbes didn't back down from a challenge. Well, ok, so she did earlier in the afternoon, but she had cheap beer running through her veins now and if Tyler made one more comment she'd jump right into the pitch water, fear be damned.

Bonnie gives her a sympathetic look, she hadn't jumped either, preferring to lay out on a warm rock but no one was bothering _her_ about it. It was almost a rite of passage, the big plunge before junior year when their high school careers were half over, and Caroline had even bought a bathing suit for it. One that wouldn't snap with the force of her body hitting the frigid water.

But she hadn't jumped.

There's some boy talking to Elena while her friend wrings out her wet hair, a senior she thinks. She only notices the two standing so close when she sees the faraway look in Matt's eyes. Caroline huffs loudly, rolling her eyes toward Bonnie. Tonight was turning out to be a huge bust. Bonnie smiles when Caroline tells her as much.

"I'm going to get another beer, you coming Bonnie?" Caroline stands quickly, only hesitating to hear if Matt says anything. But he's still staring at Elena. She's quick to ignore the sharp stab of pain somewhere near her heart and links arms with Bonnie, heading over to where Tyler is passing out the plastic cups.

"You can't like him like that, Care," Bonnie's tongue is loose too, but still kind enough for comfort. Caroline doesn't want comfort though, she wants a freaking boyfriend. "You know he and Elena are still sort of a thing." She can appreciate her friend's concern and loyalty, but Caroline has had enough challenges thrown at her for the day and she's feeling a bit reckless.

"I'm just...appreciating," she grins at Bonnie, whispering playfully in her ear. Bonnie only raises her eyebrows but continues to follow Caroline. Tyler and some of the boys from their class are passing around beer with a side of not so subtle bragging.

"Hey Sean, can I get another beer," Caroline smiles prettily, adding a short please on the end of her request after a beat. She's silently begging Tyler not to say anything because once the gauntlet is thrown...

"It's alright Forbes," Tyler wraps his arms around her from behind, she struggles lightly but not enough to shake him off, "you can be a pussy when you have one I guess." She pauses in her struggles only long enough for the fury to build up within her, but a well-placed elbow eases his grip enough for her to escape. Gauntlet fucking accepted.

"What the fuck, Tyler?" Bonnie curls her lip in disgust and puts her hands on her hips, "did you skip Sex Ed or something? Because I'm pretty sure my knee could destroy your dick." He holds his hands up in mock defense, lip curling up enough to betray his amusement.

"Seriously," Caroline mutters in agreement, brushing herself off. "You know what? I'm done," she throws her beer on the ground and stalks off. Tyler Lockwood, of all people, did not get to make fun of her for not jumping. Bonnie calls after her almost half-heartedly but doesn't follow when Caroline continues her march away from the party.

She was going to jump.

The woods are a little harder to navigate at night, she had marched off in the wrong direction to start with and it takes her longer than it should to find the jumping spot. Standing in front of the jump spot though, her liquid courage suddenly flees. The night is dark with the lack of light pollution and the water is ever darker, an inky black that threatens to suspend her somewhere between time and space. The crash of the falls seems impossibly loud, louder than they were before when the sun shone through the water. But Caroline Forbes does not back down from a challenge. Or so she repeats in her mind.

Logically she should strip down to at least her underwear, but somehow standing naked in the woods and diving into the wide body of water without a stitch of clothing seems worse than the uncomfortable shifting she would endure in her underwear on the way home. Deciding against shedding some sort of clothing, she resists standing at the very edge. The roaring of the falls has sobered her up enough to realize her fears.

And so she runs, she runs right off the edge and lets her last step give her the push she needs to avoid the rock below. And she's _falling_.

It seems infinitely longer than it looked when her friend's had jumped and she thinks it might take forever to hit the water. _Oh shit_ , Caroline realizes with a cold shiver, _her phone was still in her pocket_.

There's no time to worry though, because at that second, she hits the water.

Her fears had been real, the water is blacker than she would have ever imagined and she can barely see her limbs swirling about her in the water. It's colder too than it must have been earlier, her friends had shaken off the water and sprawled on rocks at the bottom of the falls, but this chill reaches her bones. Using every bit of strength she has, Caroline pushes off in the water, propelling herself upward to break the surface.

Tyler Lockwood could eat shit, she thinks to herself grinning. She starts to swim toward the edge of the water, ready to warm herself by the fire and brag to her classmates, but movement startles her. Stopping, she sinks until the water is just below her eyes, bobbing only to take a breath.

There are two men, she can tell by the timbre of their voices, but she doesn't recognize the language. Caroline Forbes knew everyone in Mystic Falls and even a majority of people in the next two over, but other than a few native Spanish speakers and a couple kids that went to the Chinese language school on Saturday mornings, but no one spoke whatever the hell she was hearing.

Seriously though, what the hell were they speaking?

Her legs are getting tired, so when she decides that the voices aren't coming any closer, she swims closer to the edge and tries to quietly haul herself out of the water. Her mind had sobered before her body though, and so with a loud splash, Caroline finds herself back submerged in the water.

"This could not be going any worse," she mutters, pulling herself out again. Of course, she must have done something awful in a past life, because then two men come crashing through the undergrowth and stare at her with wide eyes. "I lied, it's totally worse and...what the hell are you wearing?"

The men stare at her blankly, quickly eyeing her bare arms and legs, flashing to her wet tank top clinging to her chest, and then back over her shoulder. She'd smirk at them, pleased by how they couldn't help but give her once over, but somehow she doesn't think they're doing it because they're attracted to her. There's too much alarm in their eyes, despite a glimmer of attraction.

And they're also old. Like, not old old, she amends in her head, but old school old. And that hair, she could totally do without the hair. One of the men, he looks older than the other, steps forward and gives her a sharp command.

"What? I can't understand you. Do you speak English?" She asks, now thoroughly confused. The man seems to recognize her attempts at communication, gesturing toward her and indicating she should follow. "No, it's fine, I'm just going to find my friends," she jerks a thumb over her shoulder but her teeth are chattering loudly. It does not escape their notice.

The other man moves toward her slowly despite her protests staring at her like she was an animal about to bolt. He's rubbing his arms, a sad attempt at sign language, indicating that he's going to help warm her up. Normally she'd protest being hugged by strange looking cavemen while wearing practically nothing, but she was so damn cold. The first man says something to the one that's now wrapped around her, she's really trying not to be weirded out by it and just accept the warmth, and disappears back into the woods.

"I need to go find my friends now," she eyes the area over his shoulder, his hand still rubbing a sanding pace on her back. There're more trees here now than there were this afternoon she notices, but that's not possible, right? She looks for the old wood railing that ended the hiking trail but that wasn't there either, and she's pretty sure she hung her shirt over it to dry in the afternoon sun not a few hours earlier.

The man only hushes her, slowing his hands to a comforting tempo when he realizes that her heart rate is accelerating rapidly. There's not time for that now, she pushes off of his quickly already in panic mode. But, because it apparently can get worse, she'd forgotten how close she was to the edge of the water and stumbles backward into the deep pool.

This time, when the black water fills her vision, she does nothing to push her head back over the water. Caroline realizes, with a sudden acceptance that chills her even more, that she has somehow jumped into something that she doesn't exactly understand. This isn't stepping off the bus on the first day of freshman year, this is all encompassing realization that she is somewhere entirely foreign. But the water, the water had to be the key right?

She was a smart girl, able to think on her feet, so she lets the current from the falls pull her back under and hopefully back home. If they said chivalry was dead at home though, it must have just been beginning here.

There's a splash, the displacement of water clouds her eyes momentarily, and the man is pulling her back toward the surface, and back to his foreign land. Caroline finds herself unable to resist his pull and does not struggle when he hauls her back up to the grassy embankment. She coughs up a little of the water she'd swallowed in her surprise and he rolls her onto her back, eyeing her for any possible injuries.

"Hey buddy, eyes up here." She may have been in crisis mode, but she was nothing if not good in a dire situation. Granted her dire situations had generally involved crappy caterers and poor party decoration, but still. High stress was high stress, no matter the situation. He stares at her suddenly, an unexpected intensity, when the first man comes crashing back through the woods, with several others in tow.

Super.

* * *

"Caroline?" She looks up from the fire, smiling at Rebekah. Rebekah's smile looks more tentative than Caroline would like to see and reminiscent of the one she'd given her two months ago when Caroline had turned up on their doorstep. Or dirt path, whatever. Rebekah had been tasked with teaching Caroline their language while Caroline took on a share of Rebekah's chores in exchange for room and board.

It wasn't until very recently that she'd began to grasp where she was. Mystic Falls, she'd realized very early on, but _when_ exactly was she? They hadn't gotten to world history yet and so Caroline was left in the dark. Seriously, they'd been over the industrial revolution more times than she could count, but a full history of North America was apparently too much for the curriculum.

The Mikaelsons had been kind enough to take her in, but she had her suspicions that it was really more of a finders keepers type deal. It had been Elijah and Klaus that had stumbled upon her in the woods that night and in true caveman form, a group of men decided she would stay with the family. Esther and Rebekah had been sweet, and she found herself enjoying Henrik and the banter that Kol provided. Elijah and Klaus were polite, if somewhat distant but she'd rather that than the cool disdain of Finn and Mikael.

She could almost communicate effectively now, although there were still numerous slip ups and she'd accidentally said more embarrassing things than she could count on her fingers and toes, but it was progress. And Caroline was nothing if not a quick study. Rebekah was a good teacher as well, once they'd gotten a basis of how to teach the alphabet. She suspected the full immersion learning method also played a significant hand.

Not only had Rebekah taught her the language, or at least most of what she needed to get through the day, but she had become a good friend as well. They clashed a bit, Caroline had laughed about strong personalities while Rebekah stared on blankly.

"Yes?" Caroline asks.

"The men have come to a decision," ok, so she has no idea what Rebekah means at this point, but she nods anyway, "you have been with my family for almost a season now but you are still without a place." That had taken some getting used to, Caroline had quickly realized that the people here had no concept of time and measured their days by the rising and setting of the sun. Their years were cut into changing seasons, measured by Summer and Autumn instead of numbered days and months.

"I have a place, it's here," she indicates.

Rebekah shakes her head, "you have no family here, no name. Someone must be given care of you. The men have decided that you will be given a husband."

"No," she can feel the blood drain from her face, "no, no, no, that is not a fucking option!" Rebekah can read the clear distress on her face and holds her hands up, as if to indicate to a wounded animal that she means no harm.

"Fuh-cking op-shion, what does this mean?" It would be funny if she hadn't just said that they were about to marry her off.

"I can't get married, Rebekah, I need to go home."

"If you wish to stay in the village, you must. It is a good thing, Caroline, you are of age and you will marry into my family," Rebekah nods, looking pleased with herself.

"Marry into...who? Who am I supposed to marry?" Caroline smooths her apron, coming to the realization that there won't be any getting out of this. At least pretending to accept her fate. She'd not been allowed back to the falls during her time there, women weren't allowed to travel alone, and sleeping in a room with 8 other people had made it near impossible to sneak out at night. Caroline was realizing that she would have to sneak out at this point though and make the trip to the falls.

She would have to jump.

"Mikael has decided that Nik would be a decent option for you," Rebekah smiles. She and Caroline had known about Klaus' secret girlfriend and the competition he felt with Elijah over her. There weren't a lot of eligible women around that were actually pretty apparently, so when one appeared, the men all began courting her. Caroline, without a name, family, or anything to her own name, had been thankfully left alone.

"Rebekah, he doesn't even like me."

"He is polite out of respect, you will make a good match," Rebekah assures her. "Come now, we need to finish dinner. I'll explain everything to you." Caroline wasn't exactly sure how to tell Rebekah that she already knew about sex.

* * *

It wasn't stepping over the sleeping family that had put her on edge, nor the trek through the woods. She'd managed easily enough, slipping out of the back door with her hosts none the wiser. Making it through the woods had gone decently as well, it was darker than she would have liked, but she'd been through the woods enough growing up that she almost thought she was home. Almost.

It's the falls that terrify her. They hadn't ween she was a child, not even when she was a teenager. She, Bonnie, and Elena had peered over the jump spot at the beginning of the Summer, tittering about what it would have been like to jump. She hadn't felt fear then, but she surely cannot stand in front of the falls without it lingering in her bones now.

"Would I make that bad of a husband?" Caroline jumps, nearly falling head first over the falls, but manages to keep her footing. Her hand catches rocks in the black of night, only the moon reflecting enough light for her to see her fiancé. "I apologize, I did not mean to startle you so. I saw you leave…" Klaus trails off.

"No, no, it's not you," Caroline sighs, shaking her head and moving away from the edge, "it's just that…" she pauses looking for the right words. "I'm not from here, Klaus. I miss my own people, but I don't know how to get back to them." It's a political answer, she'd good at that. Revealing what she needs to without the necessary information, but Klaus seems to have clued into the magic that carried her here.

"This is how you got here?" He approaches and peers down the edge of the cliff over her shoulder. She nods hesitantly. He looks back at her, much closer than he had been ever since their first encounter at the bottom of the falls. "Would you like to go back?"

Caroline finds herself shaking her head no. The idea of leaping over the falls again creates a pit in her stomach that she isn't quite ready to confront. "It's not right, not right now," she admits, gesturing with her head toward the falls, "the night I came here, the water was all I could hear."

"You can't go back," he murmurs to himself continuing to look out into the crashing water. He shakes himself from his stupor and turns his head so he's looking right at her, taking her hands in his, "there may not be love between us, Caroline, but I will make you a good husband. You will not want for anything and I will protect you from all things."

"Klaus, I…" she looks at his earnest face, his sincere words, seeing that he's decided to put forth an effort to make things between the two of them work. Right then, Caroline decides, survival of the fittest and whatever, at least Klaus seemed like a decent human being. "I'm not going to be the best wife, I have no idea what I'm doing and I've already screwed up more times than I can count. Although, if you want the truth, a couple of those times I was covering for Kol and, oh shit, I'm babbling, aren't I?"

The corners of his mouth are turning up, so she assumes she can't have messed up that badly, "right, what I mean to say is that I will do my best to make this work."

"What a strange creature I find myself marrying," Klaus hums, looking pleased. Her cheeks color, it had not been so long ago she'd stumbled across him and Tatia in the woods. His taking their forced coupling so well though, Caroline will count that as a stroke of luck.

"When are we getting married?" She questions. Rebekah had not had a date, indicating that it wouldn't necessarily be up to them.

"Likely just after the planting season," Klaus frowns and drops her hands, "I'll need to build a house for us before we can marry which will be difficult come the cold season." She nods and he moves away, gesturing for her to follow, "come, we have much work for tomorrow and you must rest."

Linking her own arm with his, Caroline allows herself to be led away from the falls, pleased to return to the warm room. She doesn't sleep much that night though, sandwiched between Rebekah and Klaus, but she is glad for the warmth, both physical and emotional, that they provide.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the wonderful response! I did have someone ask about the close sleeping situations to which I would respond, most families slept in the same bed until more recent history. I know poorer families slept in the same bed through the Renaissance, and many even past that depending on their financial situation. Moving on though, here's the next installment (there will be 5 chapters), so I hope you all enjoy.

* * *

 **TWO.**

 **I used to drink Old English and speak broken English**  
 **Yeah, men are from Mars, and girls are from Venus**

 **Self-entropy drove me cold like a winter breeze**  
 **Fear as a winter tree, yeah I wasted centuries**  
 **Running wild, then the birth of my child struck me**  
 **Realisation, I learnt how to smile, wow**  
 **What I know now, I wish I knew then**  
 **I may have had a clue of what to do then**

 **I may have gotten out of these bad situations**  
 **Running around town with no destination**

* * *

She doesn't bother calling after Kol, watching his back dart away between the trees. She was really sick of the snake in the laundry trick though, black snake or not he was about to put her in an early grave. She was at the point where the little black snakes didn't even bother her, so she digs under a pile of leaves and puts the poor thing back. She'd make sure to chastise him later about disturbing them during their hibernation.

"Caroline."

"God dammit!" She whirls around with a hand pressed to her heart, "seriously, why do you people keep doing that?" Klaus watches her curiously and she's realized that she's slipped back into English. It hardly happens anymore, unless she's complaining about someone and doesn't want anyone to know. She can't think about what that means.

"Sorry," she amends, switching back to whatever Nordic language they spoke. She honestly didn't know where they had come from, but if she ever made it home, she'd figure it out. "Did you need anything?"

"Are you alright?" He gestures to where her hands and dress are stained with dirt, "you didn't fall?"

"No, no, just rescuing some poor snake Kol dug up to scare me with," she waves off, moving back to where she'd left the laundry. "I just started so if you're going to wait for me, it'll be a while," she peers up at him from where she'd kneeled back down.

"I have a few things to take care of, but I'll come back if you'd like?"

"It's up to you," Caroline tells him, but smiles at the gesture.

"Are you saying yes or no?" That was one of the many things she'd struggled to adapt to, giving a definitive answer. She'd never realized how indecisive she was and she was someone who knew what she wanted. But the people here didn't understand the half answers, giving her confused looks when she left the decision up to them. We don't have time to read your thoughts, Rebekah had chastised, if you want something, ask for it.

"Yes," she corrects, "I'd like that very much." He flashes her a toothy grin before ducking his head and moving back toward the village. She doesn't miss when he looks back with mirth in his eyes. Nor does she miss the warmth pooling in her belly, but ducks her head to hide her blushing cheeks.

The laundry is a mindless enough task, it's still cold enough that it'll have to be dried inside and wringing out the wet fabric takes more time. Klaus had secretly lined her pockets with fur so when she took short breaks, she could warm her hands back up. Thankfully she had Rebekah on her side, who had actually sewn the pockets and told Klaus which dress to put them in. Still, it was the thought that counted.

Rocking back onto her heels, she regards the falls with a wary gaze. Her chores led her back here at least once every other week and she was taking it as an opportunity to overcome her fear. But it was never loud anymore, never as loud as it had been the night she jumped. She hadn't been able to tell if the noise was just her imagination, her body's fight or flight system activating, or something she couldn't actually explain.

"Caroline," she startles again, biting out a low curse and turns to yell at whoever the hell it is now but finds Tatia staring at her. It had terrified her at first, to see her friend's face staring at her through different eyes. Statistically, Caroline had reasoned, it was possible that over thousands of years and across billions of people, it was possible to have someone that looked exactly like you. Right?

But what was she doing here, especially so soon after Klaus had stopped by? Tatia not so subtly pulls a leaf out of her hair and gives Caroline a coy smile. Caroline knows that move though, she'd spent too many afternoons with the varsity cheer squad to be taken for that much of a fool. She could respect Tatia's efforts to keep a member of her male harem, but she'd straight up fight her if she thought Tatia was after Klaus. Arranged marriage or not, Caroline Forbes didn't go down without a fight.

"Tatia," she answers, raising an eyebrow and continuing to work at rinsing the dirt out of the clothes. Caroline is practically radiating self-confidence, petty games were _so_ 2011 and she was above that. She also had known where Klaus was the past few hours, having watched him split wood from where she and Rebekah had been drying Esther's herbs. That helped too.

"You are the one to marry Niklaus," Tatia leans against a tree, standing over Caroline and watching her work. "And you missed a spot there."

"Thank you, Tatia," Caroline gives her best award winning smile to the other woman, "and I am." She hums in response but makes no move to leave or continue her thoughts. Caroline rolls her eyes and dunks another brown tinged shirt into the water.

"You will be good to him?" This question does surprise Caroline, she hadn't been expecting the vulnerability of Tatia's tone. Perhaps, underneath the bitchy exterior and two-timing relationship, Tatia really did care about Klaus. It's not an unfathomable thought, Klaus was very sweet when he warmed up a little.

"I will," Caroline promises. She'd promised him that she would try a few months back, and she finds herself reiterating the promise with more conviction.

"If you should ever need anything," Tatia pauses, letting the offer hang in the air. Caroline nods, unsure of exactly how to answer but appreciating the thought. "Good. And Caroline?" She pushes off the tree and glances back over her shoulder, "he's an excellent lover. You will be pleased." Much like Kol, Tatia moves away quickly, a flash of dark hair moving between the trees.

"What a fucking bitch," Caroline shakes her head and picks up her basket. She might not like her, but she can't help but respect Tatia for that one.

She'd been given her own chores about a month before, after ages of shadowing Rebekah. Caroline had never thought that she'd long for the days of pre-calc and biology but she really hated laundry more. Seriously though, were men always this freaking messy? She was never complaining about laundry at home ever again.

It had been almost seven months since she got here, something that's too surreal for her to really acknowledge. She speaks the language, knows the customs, and has fallen into the gleeful excitement of the period before her own wedding. She wondered what her friends were doing back home.

"Tatia came to see me," she tells him demurely when he returns from whatever errand he'd been sent on. When he doesn't respond she looks up from the particularly stubborn stain she'd been working on, but his eyes are on her. He gestures toward the shirt she's working on and silently accepts it.

"I would not already doom our marriage, Caroline, trust that," he tells her quietly, working at the stain.

"Great, now I'm the bad guy," she mutters in English, but he ignores her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to...she was actually nice. Well, I think she was testing me or whatever, but she was alright. I didn't mean it in a bad way or to make you upset or anything but I just, oh I don't even know. Men didn't really like me back home and I'm really not good at this, but,"

"Caroline," Klaus interrupts, stopping her mid-thought. She pouts at him, puffing air out of her nose. She'd actually been getting somewhere, she was sure of it. He presses his hands to the underside of her chin and pecks her lips with his own, a hurried kiss that was more innocent than anything else.

"Holy shit, Klaus! Your hands are fucking freezing," she slips her English curse words in amongst the Nordic, ducking her chin to her chest. She can hear him laughing, he was clearly pleased with her reaction, so she decides to make a move of her own. Blindly reaching for his hands, she grabs them and shoves them deep into her fur-lined pockets with her own.

"Caroline,"

"Don't say anything, I can't have a husband with frozen hands," she shushes him quietly, pressing her body closer to his while their fingers interlock. She grins when he tries to say something more, but the air goes out of him in a rush.

* * *

"The season is still early," Rebekah tells her in way of apology, passing Caroline the flowers. They're mostly white and a bluish purple, not at all what Caroline had imagined for her wedding bouquet but apparently peonies and hydrangeas were scarce this time of year. And also probably this century.

"Can you give me something to tie them together? Maybe a ribbon?" Caroline lets the bunch go, picking each flower up individually to arrange it. She may not have won Miss Mystic this year, although she freaking deserves it now with her historical commitment to the cause, but she could still put her flower arrangement class to use.

"What an odd tradition," Rebekah had managed to find a thin piece of cloth and Caroline makes quick work of wrapping the stems together. "What does it mean?"

"I have no idea, but it's been done for so long I don't think I could get married without a bouquet," Caroline admits, holding her creation up, "what do you think?"

"It's lovely," Rebekah smiles fondly.

"Rebekah," Caroline hesitates when Rebekah moves around to pull her hair into a braid, "I don't want to be improper by asking but why is no one else in your family married? Klaus isn't even the oldest and there are girls much younger than you in the village with children already."

The other girl sighs, weaving some of the left over flowers into Caroline's hair, "that does not have a simple answer and I'm not sure I could tell you the exact reason. But he has yet to make matches for any of us."

"He doesn't treat Klaus well," Caroline comments. She'd nursed a few black eyes over the winter, grateful that there was enough snow to soothe the swelling.

"No," Rebekah admits quietly. Caroline had already guessed that it was a sore subject and did not sit well with any of them. "You were without a dowry, and Mikael...it is not an easy thing to marry without a dowry."

"It was meant as a big screw you to his least favorite son," Caroline guesses. She knows Rebekah doesn't know what she's talking about, but the girl clues in well enough to catch her drift.

"No more sad talk," Rebekah stands, pulling Caroline to her feet as well. "You must dress."

The conversation that follows is lighter in tone, and quickly they are laughing while Rebekah tries to lace her dress. Caroline has no veil, no father to walk her down the aisle, no Bonnie and Elena in hideous dresses. There isn't anything old, new, borrowed, or blue. She isn't even marrying a man that she loves which is requirement number one on her wedding checklist. But that list is in a binder at home under her bed, and she's in freaking prehistoric Virginia.

Klaus isn't that bad either, she admits to herself. He could really use a haircut, but she supposed that might come with time. He was sweet and a little dorky but she could do so much worse. This is what runs through her mind when Rebekah declares her work done. Esther smiles and softly declares that she will be the most beautiful bride of the season. Caroline gives her advanced mother-in-law points.

It is Mikael that leads her down the aisle, apparently, that was a tradition here in the original home of sexism. She only rolls her eyes a little. Most of the village had turned out for the event, and they watch her curiously as Mikael leads her down the short path. Klaus does not smile but watches her with an intensity.

The ceremony is short enough, she hadn't been exactly sure what to expect but it's a weird mix of Christian and pagan rituals. She responds when prompted, thankful Rebekah had given her the full rundown, and then she's married. She doesn't even have a ring, but her fingers are interlaced with her husband's, the deed sealed with a kiss, and Caroline is oddly happy.

Like, she isn't expecting the bubbly feeling in her chest, or the warmth in her cheeks. But they're there none the less. She totally wishes her mom had actually seen her married, or even for the one she'd always dreamed of, despite the ever changing face of the groom. But this was good too, Caroline thinks, ducking her head into Klaus' shoulder when Kol makes lewd gestures.

This is good too, she realizes when Rebekah throws her arms around them and declares she finally has the sister she'd always wanted. Elijah even gifts her a rare smile, god she wished she had her phone. That was something to be saved. Henrik offers a quiet congratulations and Esther presses a bottle into her hand with a wink.

This is good too, she realizes.

* * *

Winter is different here, it's hard not to notice. Not only does the cold seem to bite deeper, making itself at home in her bones, but Caroline finds herself wrapped in furs that her husband brings home for her. It's warmer than the down and wool jackets she's used to, but that fact that he went out with her in mind when he hunted, well, despite the overwhelming sense that PETA was lurking somewhere with their buckets of paint, warms her heart a little as well.

She was willing to bet that none of the girls back home could claim that their boyfriend had felled animals to keep them warm during the cool Virginia winters. A nagging voice reminded Caroline that her mom would probably arrest any boy who tried anything of the sort, but still. When in Rome.

But winter is nearing its end now, a fact Caroline acknowledges with a mix of dread and excitement. She's been in this version of her hometown for eight months now, she wonders if time moves the same at home. She wonders if anyone has noticed how long she's been gone.

"Your thoughts are unhappy," Klaus murmurs from beside her. She turns her eyes toward him, her head following. They're lying between two furs, only lightly brushing against the other, looking up at the night sky. The sound of the falls has become comforting to her, after months of exposure therapy.

"Would you miss me? If I went home I mean," Caroline pauses, hopes the desperation in her voice doesn't betray her, "and answer truthfully." He'd been watching her for a while now, as he did almost every night but now he turns his eyes up toward the stars.

He opens his mouth to answer, pausing before the first sound can pass his lips, and holds the sound for a minute, "I find that the more I know you, the more I dread the day you must leave. I'm afraid I should spend the rest of my days in this spot waiting for you to appear."

"Klaus," she breathes. It's not the answer she expected, nor the answer she particularly wanted to hear. If she were to leave, to ever make it home, he would need to be ok.

"I apologize," his head turns away, his body shifting to move, "that was forward."

"No," her hand finds his and she curls her body toward him, breast to shoulder, thigh to thigh. "It was perfect, what you said."

"Caroline," he hesitates.

"No one is going to find us," she groans quietly, "not to mention, we're married." A noise cracks in his throat, but he shifts closer to her. It takes everything Caroline has not to roll her eyes at him, not that he would even know what that meant, but she sits upright and moves to settle between his legs, pressing her cheek to his chest.

"I don't…"

"Klaus, you're pretty, but if you don't shut up right now, I will kill you."

"As the lady wishes," he relents, wrapping his arms around her. She grins, knowing he can feel her cheek shifting against his chest. The whole Renaissance times thing that couples did back home skeeved her out, like majorly, but Klaus only called her lady when he gave in to her demands. The thought entertained her more than it should.

They'd leave soon, return to their home and crawl into their bed. She couldn't believe they'd been married for two weeks already. They might not love each other, but she felt the thrill when his hand skirted her back in public. The sex was getting less awkward, slowly but surely. She'd love to punch whoever had told him that they were supposed to dressed and the act was solely for one thing.

Caroline Forbes never half-assed anything, and that included her husband.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm back! Sorry for the delay, work has been insane. Thank you for all of the lovely responses, they're heart warming to read. Quick update, there are only going to be 5 chapters to this, so we're at the midway point. The last two are partially written, so they should come along faster than this one did.

Also, shout out to VCU for that IV like 6 years ago. Solid work there.

* * *

 **THREE.**

 **You asked me how did I get home  
Where'd you get those bruises from?  
You left your shoes, can't find your phone  
You didn't sleep here on your own  
What did you do? Where did you go?  
Truth is I don't really know  
Oh, is this love? It's not enough  
Just one sip and I can't stop  
I'm too far out, too far to reach  
From below you call to me**

 **Don't get too close, I'm flying high  
I feel too beautiful to die  
Let me tear, oh I don't care  
See the horror in your stare  
Watch me spin, oh watch me run  
Watch me burn up in the sun**

 **(Wild Season by Banks & Steelz Feat. Florence Welch)**

* * *

It's been three years since she's seen her own mother, could it be almost four now? Time moved so differently here, she'd lost track. She could still see the distant look on her mom's face the night before the Falls party, she could still hear her mother telling her that nothing good ever lurked in the dark. Not in Mystic Falls at least. She'd never actually considered its meaning, only rolled her eyes and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek.

She was right though, Caroline had so quickly realized, nothing good happened in Mystic Falls after dark.

"No, Klaus…" Caroline takes a step backward, edging into the forest and away from the water. She steps back from her husband and away from the desperation that lines his face. "You can't make me do this," she pleads. "Please, Klaus, please don't do this. We can figure it out, just…"

"You think I want this?" He roars in response, stepping closer. He doesn't miss her flinch, doesn't miss the split second of hesitation that crosses her face. "Caroline," she watches him drop to his knees, a proud man now defeated by circumstance. "I can't…" It's barely a whisper and she's in front of him in a second. She isn't afraid of him, she wants to tell him, she's only afraid of what a desperate man will do. "I can't fix this, I can't...I don't.."

"No, no," she's crying now, tears seeping from the corners of her eyes. She presses his face to her stomach, arching her back over him as if to protect him from what he'd seen. "Come with me, Klaus, I can't leave you. Please, just...come with me."

"Do you hear it?"

"Yes," she answers his soft question, "yes, I hear it." Her voice is just as defeated as his, broken and twisted as it rises above the roar of the Falls.

"Caroline," he whispers, her ears straining to catch his words, "Caroline, I don't hear it."

His face is pressed tightly against her stomach, his limp arms had come to wrap themselves around her thighs as she shook. It's a difficult thing to know, she realizes, to know that she has to leave the one she loves most in order to save herself. If she goes now, she knows, she might live. And if not, she hesitates to think of what another death would do to her poor husband. Henrik's death had gutted him, left him depressed for weeks.

"Promise me that you'll find me, alright? You promise?" Lies, she knows it and he knows it. She's asking him the impossible, holding out hope for the impossible, but he still doesn't hesitate to agree, a fierce nod against her abdomen.

She'd been surprised when Esther had asked her to meet at the Falls when the sun had set. The family had only done the bare minimum of functioning the past few weeks, and Esther had become listless after the death of her youngest son. Caroline had hoped when she saw the woman out picking flowers a few days prior, she'd hoped when she saw Esther considering the big tree in the middle of town.

But Esther hadn't been there. The sudden roaring of the Falls shocked a cold beat into her heart and when Klaus appeared behind her, Caroline just _knew_. Esther was telling her that she needed to leave. What it meant for the family, she couldn't be sure, but Caroline knows she can't be a part of it.

She pulls him to stand, pulling him up against every inch of her until she's able to press her forehead to his. Hands pulling, she grasps desperately for anything of his to hold onto, anything to keep him against her. Stepping backward, she doesn't ease her hold on him, pulling him toward the rushing water that doesn't ever quiet.

With her eyes closed, Caroline presses her lips to his, her feet barely holding onto the very edge. Her lips are still sealed to his when he pushes her toward the final step, hands pressed against her ribs.

And they're _falling_.

She can barely feel him twist so his back takes the brunt force of the water because the shock of the cold has already pulled her from his arms.

* * *

 _CAROLINE FORBES, FOUND ALIVE. After four long years, missing high school student, Caroline Forbes, was found near the waterfall in Mystic Falls, Virginia delirious and rambling. Thought to have run away, authorities were surprised yesterday evening when a girl matching her description was found only 600 yards from where she had disappeared. The weirdest part of the story is that she was found wearing an amazing reproduction of a Middle Age smock dress and speaking an old Scandinavian dialect thought to be lost entirely._

 _Miss Forbes was immediately taken to Mystic Falls General Hospital before being airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital in Richmond for further testing._

* * *

A knock on the door pulls her from her thoughts. Was it always so loud in this time? There's always so much _noise_. She'd pulled the IV from her arm days ago, hissing at the nurse, had pulled the sticky plastic bits off as well until she felt the foreign sensation of sedatives pulling her under. There hadn't been any noise, but she didn't like the cottony feeling that it left in her head. She'd only barely come out of her daze.

There was no one there when she woke up, a note from her mother telling her that she was trying to get a handle on the media storm but she'd be back shortly. It had been like high school Spanish all over again, stumbling over the words she knew but couldn't immediately recall. _Adapt_ , her own voice echoed through her head. If Caroline Forbes could spend 4 years in god knows when, ancient freaking Mystic Falls, she can get back into her own time. Or so she repeats to herself.

"Hey Care," she turns her head and sees Elena and Bonnie staring at her with wide eyes. They've got flowers and look as shell-shocked as she feels in this new world. Seeing Elena's face, that was also Tatia's, back on Elena makes her breath catch in her throat. If they'd made her wear the heart monitor all the time, Elena and Bonnie would have seen it skip a beat.

"Hey guys," her voice cracks and the English feels not quite right on her tongue. Bonnie and Elena look at each other before approaching the bed tentatively. Caroline twists the thin silver band on her left ring finger, a gift from Klaus on their first anniversary.

"We have so much to tell you," Elena smiles kindly, "you can talk to us too, whenever you're ready. If not, we'd totally understand. Just," Elena must feel as awkward as she does, "whatever you're comfortable with."

She appreciates the consideration. The police, the doctors, even her mother had yet to relent in the questions and she isn't ready. The sting of knowing that her husband has been dead for a thousand years is hard enough, reliving it is out of the question. Not that anyone would believe her anyway.

"I was…" she pauses and lets out a bitter laugh, "you wouldn't even believe me."

"You'd be surprised," Elena gives her own bitter eye roll and comes to perch at the end of Caroline's bed. "I think I should probably wait to tell you everything, but it's been a crazy four years."

"Brothers," Bonnie bites her lip, but the edges of her lips turn up in a smile, "Elena's dated two brothers!"

"Not at the same time," Elena laughs and swats at Bonnie, before turning back to Caroline, "little Mystic Falls has turned into a hotbed of drama, who would have thought?" Caroline realizes that Elena's smile doesn't quite reach her eyes and Bonnie seems a little sadder than she should be.

What had her friends done while she was gone, Caroline wonders, because they look as weary as she feels.

"What about you Bonnie? Any boys I need to keep an eye on?" She joins in because she feels like she should. It's stilted and a little awkward, but they're trying. Caroline misses the easy camaraderie they'd had before she left, she misses gossiping with Rebekah, and god forbid, she even misses the teasing barbs Tatia would direct her way.

"Not any good ones," Bonnie shrugs, and lets out a dramatic puff of air.

"How are your parents, Elena? And Grams?" Oh, she quickly realizes when their face turn down, things have been a hotbed of drama in Mystic Falls, haven't they?

"My parents, they uh, died the night you disappeared, and Grams passed away about 6 months after," Elena tells her, pausing to look at Bonnie. Liz had begged them to keep it light and easy.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Caroline reaches for Elena's hand and Bonnie's as well. "God, look at us. I can't even believe it's been four years," Caroline laughs, looking for something to make her believe that the time has really passed. She could almost convince herself that time hadn't shifted at all.

"You don't have to say anything about what happened Care, but were you happy? And safe?" Bonnie asks, flipping her hand to squeeze Caroline's.

"For the most part," Caroline bites her lip, struggling with her answer. She had been happy once she'd adjusted to her life there, at some points she'd been happier than she could have ever imagined possible. But she'd also hit deeper lows than she'd ever experience living at home, "I was always safe, and for the most part I was happy."

* * *

It's dark by the time her friends leave. She isn't sure what else to think beyond that.

Catching up had begun well enough, but then Bonnie and Elena had gotten to the point where they couldn't move forward until they told her what had really been happening during the past four years in Mystic Falls.

They'd gotten to the point where the name Katherine had come up, another doppelgänger or whatever, and the big bad that had been chasing her for the past 500 years before Caroline had to put her foot down. She's laughed it off as being a little too much to take in at once, too overwhelming to explain in a hospital bed.

Really though, it was that Tatia and Elena were tied together by magic that unsettled her. She struggled to stomach the idea that there were at least three women that looked like Elena, or Tatia.

Also, Damon Salvatore sounded like a real dick and she was _not_ looking forward to meeting him. Bonnie had snorted when Caroline wrinkled her nose and told Elena that Stefan sounded like a badly written character from one of the crappy vampire smut novels they'd smuggled around as kids. And Damon sounded like a rebel without a cause, but in the obnoxious way that boys are prone to do when they get their first leather jacket.

She hadn't been able to tell them about Klaus. Honestly, the more Elena went on about being caught between the two brothers (which was, um, ew!) the more Caroline felt the need to keep her ancient family to herself. She didn't want them to feel the pity that she felt listening to Elena go on and on.

"Hey honey, I brought you some real food," Liz appears in the doorway waving a Starbucks bag. Caroline wasn't really ready for any more company, but her mom was a welcome sight. So was the Starbucks bag. "No coffee yet, but I did grab you a blueberry muffin."

"Oh my god," Caroline snatches the bag, and dives in, "I missed these things so much."

"There were no Starbucks where you were? There's one on every corner." Caroline almost freezes at the comment, but the muffin was just too damn good.

"Please Mom," she manages through a mouthful, "Elena and Bonnie got me caught up on everything in Mystic Falls. You know there are places without a Starbucks."

Her mom sighs, hanging her head slightly, before sitting on the end of Caroline's bed. Her mom is weary in a way she can't remember her ever being. Not when Mr. Robertson killed himself after his wife died, not even when her dad left for another man. Elizabeth Forbes had always taken everything in stride, somehow able to compartmentalize everything going on. Caroline had always envied that trait.

"It's been a difficult 4 years, Caroline. We've lost a lot of people and had a lot of strange things occur. How much did they get into it?"

"I know the Salvatore brothers are vampires and Elena is part of some ancient bloodline that all have the same face. And I know Bonnie is a witch," Caroline rattles off, trying to recall the main points of the stories. "I know that you knew."

"That's a really long story," her mom shifts on the bed, resting her back against the foot and stretching her legs alongside Caroline's side, "I guess we have time though, huh?" Caroline doesn't respond, she isn't sure where her mother is going with this.

"I did know, I've had some inkling since I married your Dad, but Mystic Falls...well, it's something you need to see to believe. Your Dad grew up around this Care, he tried to escape, but he died in the midst of it too," Caroline winces, the news was still tender, and Liz puts her hand on Caroline's shin, "it's inescapable, you'll find that. I did when everything...happened. I've been thinking though, we can leave, if you want? You won't have to deal with it…"

Caroline is already shaking her head furiously, objecting to the thought before her mom can even finish her sentence. "After...everything, I just need some things to be the same, you know?" She gives by way to explain her behavior.

She can't tell her mom that she's mourning a ghost, in love with a man whose bones lie somewhere underneath the Earth in the god damned town. She can't tell her mom that some distant part of her holds hope that she'll see his face again one day. The thought of leaving her husband in spirit again, it would gut her.

Wiping fresh tears from the corners of her eyes, Caroline whimpers in a broken voice, "I just want something familiar. I need it, Mom."

Liz hesitates, she doesn't want to condemn her daughter to the life that she led, the constant danger that her friends were in. She'd already let her daughter, her only child, become lost, how could she sentence her to a life in Mystic Falls? How could they go back to the town that had taken her daughter from her?

But Caroline has been through enough, she knows, and when Caroline utters the word, they'll be out of that damn town within the hour. Liz moves up, giving her shoulder, her chest to the daughter that had been found and promised whatever she wished. If Mystic Falls would keep her together, then Liz would just have to make sure that Caroline was safe there until she could get her out.

* * *

"Caroline," her mom starts, but Caroline only pulls her jacket a little tighter and continues strolling along the path. They'd finally let her out of the hospital, although there were plenty more plans for test and blood drawing. They were letting her go home now though, she was thankful for small mercies. But she knew she was going to have to confront the rapidly growing issue.

She'd begged some time away before they went back home, pleaded with her mother for one more night before she had to return to that town. Torn between wanting to be near her memories and not being ready to mourn his unmarked grave, she just needed one more day. She couldn't think about home without thinking about _him_. And so she'd dragged her mom to the botanical garden at the recommendation of one of the nurses.

The weather is awful so they're the only ones on the trails. The skies are overcast and it's spitting just enough rain to piss her off. But it's nice, to be away from the bustle of the hospital and out of the buzzing city center of Richmond. For the first time in weeks, Caroline feels somewhat relaxed.

"I'm not ready yet, Mom, someday, but not now," she admires one of the roses along the brick path, muttering the same answer she'd been giving for weeks. She knew all the questions her mother wanted answers to and was almost at the point where she could maybe answer some of them. But not quite yet.

Most of what she needed to do was to get her story together. It's not like she could just tell her mom that she'd been sent back to the Middle Ages or whatever and got married to a man there. You can't just tell your mom that you've fallen in love with a dead caveman.

After what her mom had said though, and Bonnie and Elena, Caroline now knows that weird things happen in Mystic Falls and it's generally accepted without question. But vampires and werewolves were one thing. Time travel, marriage, and years long disappearances were another.

"Well you're going to have to start talking, Caroline, your blood tests indicated that you're pregnant." Well, Caroline thinks, at least her mom wasn't one to beat around the bush.

She lets out a soft puff of air and moves her hand to press under her belly button. She can still feel Klaus' hot breath against it, just before she'd fallen back into her own time. She'd known about the pregnancy for a couple weeks before Henrik's death but was waiting for the right time to tell her husband.

His relationship with his own father had left her tongue dry in her mouth. Whenever anyone in the town had asked with knowing smiles when they would be expecting their first, Klaus had a tendency to clam up. He'd make a good father, she knew. But he was so worried about becoming his own father, she'd hesitated too long to tell him of his own impending fatherhood.

"I just finished my first trimester," she acknowledges. "I'll tell you what you want to know with two conditions," she waits for her mom to agree, "no therapy and no mental hospital or whatever. I don't want people thinking I'm crazy. And I need to do this on my own time. It might take me a while to tell you everything, but let me have that."


	4. Chapter 4

One more to go after this.

* * *

 **FOUR.**

 **I stay alone, skipped a stone, from the known to the unknown  
Feeding fires, spinning tyres, getting even  
And for a while, I made you smile, saw the voodoo in you child  
Girl, you know you are the reason  
It's been a wild season**

 **(Wild Season by Banks & Steelz Feat. Florence Welch)**

* * *

Pressing send on the email, Caroline lets out a long breath. She'd forgotten how much she hated essays with a specific topic and a long page requirement. She had a test that evening that she felt nearly ready for, but wasn't sure she'd actually be able to cram any more studying in for.

She'd gotten her GED three months after she'd returned to Mystic Falls. Between being six months pregnant and needing a serious distraction, she'd thrown herself into her studies and was able to finally graduate high school. She found out she'd been accepted into Boston University's online program three days after giving birth. Once again throwing herself into school, she was able to get through the first couple months of her daughter's life where Klaus' absence felt the most noticeable.

God, it'd been a year and she still couldn't bring herself to say his name beyond a hushed whisper to her child.

Sliding out from behind the desk, she stretches out her back and slides her laptop back into her purse. Having a baby had been a bitch on her lower back and the Mystic Falls Police department wasn't known for having chairs with great lumbar support. She couldn't complain though, no urgent calls had come in while she finished up the essay and reread her notes. Given the reputation of the town, they were long overdue for some serious turmoil.

"Thanks for letting me off early, boss," Caroline smiles, walking into her Mom's office. Liz rolls her eyes, but obligingly puts down the report she had been reading.

"You're picking up Ellie at Bonnie's, right?"

"Elena was watching her today, Bonnie had a few errands to run," Caroline sits in the chair across from the desk, checking her phone to make sure she was on time. Her friends were kind enough to take turns watching the baby during the Summer. Whitmore went back a few weeks before Ellie's preschool started, but the couple free months of childcare were a blessing.

"I thought Elena was busy today?" Liz knew she was busy, actually. Caroline had never wanted to know anything about the bi-monthly blood donations that Elena made at the hospital, so she remained blissfully unaware of the schedule. Liz was in charge of putting the blood on ice and shipping it to whatever address she was given. As long as they kept up their end of the bargain, they were left alone.

"What, do you have her schedule memorized now?" Caroline snarks at her mom, "Elena just said that I had to pick up Ellie by 2, and Bonnie is taking the afternoon shift while I take my test. You're still ok to proctor for that, right?"

"I am," Liz confirms, moving to check her phone. She hadn't gotten her customary text over the past few days, "go ahead and get Ellie. Oh, and Caroline? Ask Elena and Bonnie about that girls weekend. You deserve some time away."

"It was a girls afternoon, Mom," Caroline shrugs, "I know your job and Ellie needs to stick to her schedule. Elena and Bonnie already have a hard enough time with it, I don't need you getting her off her cycle too," grabbing her bag and standing, Caroline pauses in the doorway, "I'll see you at home, love you."

"Love you too," Liz calls after her. She had a few calls to make in the meantime.

* * *

"What the hell, Elena?" Caroline mutters when she pulls up in the driveway. She can see Damon's car pulled haphazardly on the edge of the grass in the driveway, driver's door still open. Part of the agreement that they'd made when she'd asked Bonnie and Elena to help her with childcare over the Summer was that there were to be no vampires or werewolves, or whatever new creature that would eventually pop up, around her daughter. Bonnie's witchy powers already put her a little on edge.

But then she sees the front door open too. Dropping her purse, Caroline makes a bolt for the door, but a strong hand clamps over her mouth and wraps around her arms the second she makes a move through the doorway. Stefan, she realizes, when Damon holds a finger to his lips and points to the baby monitor.

There are people here that she doesn't know, standing guard at the foot of the stairs. She can see Elena's wild eyes and a blood bag slowly filling near her elbow. There's a young man standing next to her, clearly keeping an eye on the filling bag. Wriggling in Stefan's arms, all she wants to do is get to her baby. If anything should happen...

"Shhh, there's a good girl," a voice crackles over the baby monitor. Caroline looks to Bonnie in alarm, the voice still coming through half static, "no need to be frightened, little one, no harm will come to you. But to whom do you belong?" Ellie's cries stop, seemingly soothed by the voice. Biting Stefan's hand with every ounce of strength she has, he removes it quickly with a hiss.

"Don't touch my fucking child," Caroline's voice carries through the house. It hardly sounds like her, she half realizes, it comes out much deeper than she thinks she's ever heard. Ellie's cries begin to cackle again through the crappy baby speakers, but it's the voice that echoes above it that really scares her.

"Caroline?" She isn't sure whether she heard it over the monitor or from the man himself. He's quick, darting from the pack and play in Elena's guest room down to the front room where they all stand frozen. Still clutching her daughter, she watches him sink to his knees while Ellie grabs at his jacket, completely red in the face.

She'd move if she could, while Elena flings herself at one of her captors and Bonnie chants a steady Latin rhythm. The two brothers throw themselves into the mix as well, swinging punches and twisting necks as they go. Klaus never stands and Caroline never shifts.

"Don't touch him," she growls when Damon moves to snap Klaus' neck as well. "In fact, get out. I want all of you out," she turns to her friends, jaw set and eyes blazing.

"Care, we have to," Elena starts, but Caroline throws a pointed finger to the door.

"Out. Now. And take them with you," she gestures toward the bodies on the ground. She knew they'd be alright, there weren't any hearts lying about. Standing guard, refusing to look at her husband or her daughter whose loud shrieks had turned to silence, she watched Stefan and Damon drag the bodies out while her friends stepped backward out the door in bewilderment.

It's all her heart can do not to break when she turns around and sees Ellie gumming the collar of his jacket while Klaus watches Caroline. He's white as a ghost while he watches her move to the freezer and pull out a bright piece of plastic.

The whole existence of vampires was still new to her, but after some time around Elena's boyfriends, Caroline was quick to recognize what had happened to her husband. She really wasn't sure how to deal with this development though. Was he a blood thirsty maniac who killed without a thought? Harmless but obnoxious like Damon? Or was he just a bad reflection of a male vampire in a teenage romance novel like Stefan? Should she run to him or run from him?

"She's teething," Caroline explains, putting the toy in her daughter's pudgy hand. "I'm torn right now, Klaus," she tells him, pulling Ellie from his arms and taking a few steps back. "I'm torn because you shouldn't be here in this time, and you certainly shouldn't be here taking bags of blood from my best friend, which is gross on so many levels, I'm not going to think hard on that right now."

"You never told me," his voice is quiet.

"Well, it's not like I had a whole lot of time to…"

"Not that," he interrupts, shifting so he's sitting flat on the floor, "you never told me the year that you had come from. I spent..centuries," he laughs bitterly, "waiting, not sure when or where. Not sure if you'd made it back at all. And here you are, with…" he drops off, realizing that he doesn't know the baby's name.

"Elsebet, Ellie for short," Caroline steps closer to him, crouching to his level. "Do you want to hold her?"

"She's mine?" He looks up at her with wide eyes. She almost chastises him for assuming that she wasn't, but with time travel and a thousand year long pregnancy, Caroline can understand his disbelief. She'll slap him for it later, when everything has cooled off and she can really go off on him.

Nodding, she sits so their knees are touching and gently hands him their daughter, "I would have named her after your parents or something, but you know, they pretty much sucked, so I found one that meant something to me in your language."

"I killed them," Klaus offers, looking back up at her.

"That's...great, Klaus. That's really great. I mean, I'm pretty sure killing your parents is super frowned upon no matter what era you're in, and you look entirely too pleased with yourself considering you're holding your own child. But, you know, whatever."

"Elsebet, you wouldn't murder your dear old Dad, would you?" Klaus coos to Ellie, looking downright thrilled when she throws her teething toy away so she can gnaw on his finger.

"This is," Caroline pauses because she really isn't sure what she wants to say next. The conversation had taken a sharp downward turn, but the image of it was making her eyes misty. "I hope you washed your hands, because if she eats even a speck of blood, there's going to be hell to pay. We have to go now," he frowns but hands Ellie back obligingly.

"We need to discuss this, Caroline, I'll not…"

"Klaus," balancing Ellie on her hip when she stands, Caroline whirls to face her husband who was still sitting on the floor, "I don't have time for one of your long winded speeches. Get your stuff because if you make me late for this test, we're going to have another problem." She picks up her discarded purse before marching out of the house. She doesn't hear Klaus follow, but by the time she has Ellie buckled in, he's sitting in her passenger seat.

"What's this test you're taking?" He asks. Caroline thumps over an arm that was left in the driveway, reversing into the street quickly.

"Economic trade routes along the Northern Sea during the dark ages," she responds, appreciating his calculating frown. It always sent a secret thrill through her when she knew a historical fact that Stefan and Damon were clueless about. "I'm double majoring in communication and early European history."

"Those are quite the paths of study," Klaus comments, "where are you studying?"

"Boston University has a really great online program. I can work part time at the police station, go to school, and take care of Ellie pretty much full time."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out." Oh, she does _not_ have time for that bitter tone.

"Klaus," she looks at him after pulling in the driveway, "I am more than happy to talk about whatever the hell you want, but I need to take this test first, ok? So keep your snarky comments to yourself. I need you to watch Ellie because my mom has to proctor for me." She doesn't wait for him to respond, stopping only to unclip her daughter from the backseat.

"Care," Elena jumps up off the front porch, Bonnie standing protectively behind her, when she hands Ellie over to Klaus and marches up the front path.

"I will call you when I've taken my test, ok Elena?"

"But what…" Elena stops when Caroline interrupts her, gaping at Klaus trailing behind with a diaper bag on one shoulder and Ellie balancing on his other hip.

"After. My. Test." She'd laugh at the comical look on Elena's face if she wasn't about to be late because no one could listen.

"Caroline," Klaus calls from behind her, "I need an invitation. Your mother and I have uh...had our differences."

"Seriously," she tips her head back and groans, "who haven't you offended? Come in."

"I've not had the pleasure of threatening the new Pope?" He offers, hanging the bag on the rack beside the door. He's pleased when he's rewarded with a soft chuckle and her promise that she won't be long before Caroline heads up the stairs. "I don't know, but I think she likes me," he tells Ellie. He's almost certain that her spit bubble is a sign of agreement.

* * *

"You told me not to ask before you took the test," Liz starts, sitting back on Caroline's bed, "so I'm asking now because you've left your daughter murdering vampire psychopath."

"That's an apt description," she chuckles, closing her laptop. So that was the kind of vampire he was. "I told you everything, or just about everything, that happened during my time away, but I never said their names because it was still just a little too raw," Caroline begins, not quite gathering up the strength to look her mom in the eye.

"Please don't tell me you were married to him," Liz begs. She'd long since had to settle with the fact that Caroline had been sucked into a time that wasn't her own, but having Klaus as a husband? Liz wasn't sure she could take the news.

"I'm not sure of the crimes he's committed against you all.."

"Caroline, he murdered Tyler's mother," Liz interrupts, "not to mention all the people he's labeled as collateral damage."

"Ok, let me rephrase that, I'm not going to excuse all the crimes he's committed Mom because clearly the list is ridiculously long, but he's not that man to me. Klaus was my husband for three and a half years, is still my husband really, and during that time, he was a good man. He's thoughtful and sweet and considerate, and he wouldn't have let anything happen to me, like ever."

"I understand that you haven't seen him, Mom, and I'll give him hell for what he's done, but until I see it with my own eyes, I'm not going to point any fingers," Caroline stands and lets out a heavy sigh, "I've got like a thousand things to deal with now, but I need to you be civil, ok? I can't handle anymore stress and have had a really freaking weird day that I know I haven't processed yet."

"I won't kill him, but that's all you're getting from me," Liz warns. Caroline shoots her a withering glare but accepts her terms. "Elena and Bonnie are still probably on the porch, you go talk them off whatever tizzy they've rightfully worked themselves into. I'm going to lay down some ground work with your," Liz pauses, struggling to reign in her contempt, "husband."

"Thanks, Mom," Caroline rolls her eyes. She appreciates the effort, but god, she could do without the drama. Trailing after her mother, she catches a quick glimpse of Ellie sacked out on Klaus' chest while he reads something on his phone.

"Sorry," he looks out of place for a minute, gesturing lightly with his spare hand. "I wanted to send Rebekah a picture."

"We'll talk in a couple minutes, I promise," Caroline whispers to him, leaning to press a kiss to the back of her daughter's head. She gives him a quick peck on the cheek as well. It'll piss her mother off, but he needs some courage to get through the conversation he's about to have. Liz raises her eyebrow as Caroline walks out the door.

Stefan and Damon have joined her friends on the porch, Damon leaning against the wall while Stefan rests against the railing. Elena and Bonnie were swinging gently on the porch swing, completely silent.

"Before anyone asks, it went great!" Caroline jokes. It falls completely flat when four faces look up at her, some cross between confused, angry, and disturbed. "Ok, so I'm going to just put this out there, let me get everything out and then ask questions, ok?"

No one says a word, so Caroline launches into the full story, leaving out only the goriest of details. "I was trying to repair the most impossible hole in his pants when I first told him I loved him," Caroline laughs, "you know you love someone when you don't mind spending hours trying to fix something they messed up without getting exasperated. And then he told me he loved me after watching me save a snake and then shoved his hands in my pockets, which totally blew my mind because we weren't even married yet."

Ok, so she didn't cut out the goriest details, but they were important. "But then he's been alive the whole time, which is absolutely terrifying but also, so beyond great. Of course, he's been terrifying the town because the universe knows just how to fuck me over in the worst way possible. I think what I'm trying to get across is that I need this right now, after everything. I need him, despite everything."

"I can't be ok with this," Elena speaks after a minute and god, it breaks her heart.

"I'm not asking you all to be ok with it, and I don't even think you should be. Clearly his behavior is inexcusable, so I won't ask you to be ok with it. Just," she pauses, fumbling for words, "just know that I'm happy and safe."

Elena opens her mouth to say more, but quickly realizes that there's no point. She nods only once, she's mad and hurt but accepts Caroline's position. Bonnie is clearly a lot angrier, she elbows by Elena without a second glance. Caroline sighs, letting her eyes follow her friends for a minute before turning back into the house. She doesn't wait for Stefan and Damon, they weren't her friends and she wasn't concerned with their opinions on her love life.

"How'd it go?" Caroline jumps, not expecting her mother to be just on the other side of the front door.

"About as well as you'd expect," she shrugged, "how'd your conversation go?" Liz sighs and wraps her arms around her daughter, pulling her tight and rocking her for a minute.

"It's ok to be upset you know, this is clearly a very difficult situation," Caroline mumbles her thanks into her mom's shoulder, "I can admit to seeing a few redeeming qualities in Klaus, not many, but they're there. He's putting Ellie to sleep now and I have the night shift."

"Thanks Mom," Caroline laughs quietly, pressing the back of her hand to the edges of her eyes, "I really appreciate you trying."

"No funny business while I'm gone, right?" Liz picks up the keys to the cruiser and gives Caroline a significant glance. Caroline rolls her eyes and gives her Mom a kiss on the cheek on her way out the door. No use reiterating that she was married and had a child with him, Liz would surely find someway around that one.

Heading up the stairs and wanting nothing more than a hot shower, Klaus startles her when he steps out of Ellie's room. She wasn't used to him being there, not used to seeing him interact with their child. That'll take a while, she knows. She hasn't even had time to process the fact that her husband, who should have been dead a thousand years ago, was standing in front of her with a significantly better haircut.

"Caroline…" he starts, but she holds up a hand to silence him.

"It's been a long day, ok? We're still having a very long and difficult conversation tomorrow, but I just don't have it in me tonight," he nods when she pauses, moving to head back down the stairs. "I'm going to take a hot shower," she tells him when he hesitates at the top of the stairs, "and when I get out, I want you waiting for me in my bed. That's not a suggestion." She barely catches his face before she shuts the bathroom door.

You know what though? It's been a year since she's seen her husband and if she wants him in her bed, naked or otherwise, that's her damn business.


	5. Chapter 5

Last chapter, I hope you all enjoyed this and maybe even checked out the song that inspired it. The end came easy for this story and though I'm sad to switch it to complete, it was ready and I'm excited to move on to the next story. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement, they were beyond appreciated.

I've also borrowed one of my favorite lines from Caitlyn Siehl (she has previously stated that with credit, she's alright if readers borrow lines). If you've not heard of her, I'd recommend checking her out.

Be warned, you're going to need a visit to the dentist by the time all is said and done.

* * *

 **FIVE.**

 **I know the reasons not to break your heart  
I know the reasons still I stray too far  
Made me realise  
It's been a wild season  
Seems I made it this far **

**Yeah, still got that wolf in me  
It's been a wild season  
And the hunting never stops **

**And we still on the prowl  
'Till everybody drops**

 **Wild Season by Banks & Steelz Feat. Florence Welch**

* * *

Shit, she knows she's late but there'd been an issue down at the station house and her Mom had come home 15 minutes after she was supposed to. Thankfully Caroline had allowed for some sort of issue, this was Mystic Falls of course, but a comedy of errors had left her running nearly 20 minutes behind including the driving rain. Looking like a drowned rat was exactly _not_ how she wanted to have this conversation.

"I was beginning to think you'd stood me up," Klaus comments when she hurls her bag across the booth, sliding in after it, "our waitress was getting ready to comp my wine and everything." Shooting him a glare, she sets her wet umbrella against the booth, making sure to tuck it away.

"You're such a drama queen," Caroline rolls her eyes, "we've been eating here at least once a week for the past 6 months. They totally knew I was running a couple minutes late." Klaus hums and swirls his glass. He isn't exactly happy about their lunch spot, or even the town itself, but other than a long-suffering sigh here and there he was a pretty good sport about it.

"Hey Caroline," Sarah appears on cue, "sweet tea and the greek salad with a large side of fries?" Caroline nods and thanks the girl.

"How are your classes going?" Klaus asks when Sarah walks away. Sarah never lingered to chat with Caroline when she ate with Klaus. No neighbors stopped by the table, even when Ellie joined them for lunch. There had been questions at first, how Klaus felt about Ellie, if they were going to get married with her being an unwed mother and all, the same sorts of nosey questions that neighbors ask in small towns. They'd all been quickly dismissed when Klaus informed each and every one of them that it wasn't any of their damn business.

There were still murmurs though, because she was a, technically, unwed mother and Klaus was known around town as the wealthy benefactor who had more money than he knew what to do with. No one had yet to physically state the term gold digger, she didn't even want to imagine what would happen if Klaus were to hear that one, but the implications were there.

"Well enough," she comments, "I totally hate the math I'm required to take, but it kinda is what it is, you know?" She was trying, she really was, but statistics was a foreign language. Being thrown into the Middle Ages? She could do it in her sleep. Confidence intervals, though? No thanks.

"If you need help, you know where I live," he comments lightly. There's still an undercurrent of hurt in it though, and Caroline flinches.

The past 6 months had been rocky, to say the least. Despite her initial excitement, all of Klaus' more...irreputable qualities and habits had quickly come to light. It was had not to see the murder-happy man that sometimes swung a little too close to crazy and Caroline had shown her reluctance in immediately pretending everything was ok. But there was a very large part of him that was still the man she had married a thousand years ago.

It had been hard to reconcile the two parts of him, and so their near daily lunch routine was the closest they could come to a compromise. He babysat Ellie on a fairly regular basis, despite his killer instinct, she trusted him wholeheartedly to never put their daughter in harm's way. Klaus was still a little touchy about their separate living quarters and lack of intimacy.

She had to give it to him though, he never complained, never pushed the envelope, and remained loyal to her. Well, sometimes his hand lingered a little too long on the small of her back and he had a terrible habit of playing with a piece of her hair, but she wasn't exactly about to nip either of those activities in the bud.

"Speaking of which," Caroline trails off when Sarah returns with her drink, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"And what might that be, love?" Klaus murmurs, not quite meeting her eyes.

"I want to move." His eyes snap to hers and his expression tells her that he hadn't been expecting that. "I mean, look, I don't want to stay here working as the secretary at the police department forever, you know? And things with you here haven't helped," he opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off quickly, "before you get all defensive, that wasn't meant in offense to you. I'm just sick of everyone asking about us and judging me. I want to start over and go somewhere where no one cares that I'm a technically unwed mother whose significant other turns up with blood on his collar."

"I understand your reasoning, Caroline, but I fail to see where it's going," Klaus points out.

"Right, I forgot about that," she laughs awkwardly, "I want you to come with us and I want the three of us to actually live together, like a family."

"This means you're alright with, well, what I am?" It's when he's like this that she can barely fathom the blood on his hands. He's so hopeful and earnest, so much more of the man she loved than the monster she didn't know how to.

"Alright is probably a little strong," she admits, "but I'm going to have to be if I ever want to be like you." She wasn't hesitating with the curve balls today, pleased with herself when his second of hesitation turns into a wry grin. "I know you have no intention of letting Ellie be just a werewolf and if you two are planning on living forever, I fail to see why I wouldn't either." His grin has pulled into a full smile, and he drops his eyes momentarily.

It's these glimpses of him that confuse her the most, that conflict her the most. But as the months had gone by, she'd seen more and more of them, until the small glimpses had become hours, days, weeks of the man she loved. Even when the skin under his fingernails looked raw and he'd been wearing a different shirt only hours earlier, the smile he reserved for only her and Ellie no longer required a second thought. That had made her decision all the more final.

"Well, yes, I'd planned on broaching the subject with you at some point when I thought you were ready. I suppose I should have known that you would tell me when you were ready whether I'd considered it or not."

"You're totally going to have to get used to that," she laughs, pausing only to thanks Sarah for dropping her salad off. Klaus rarely ordered anything, much more content to pick the fires off her plate. It was exactly why she'd upgraded to the large.

He doesn't move to snatch a few fries immediately like he normally does, nor does he push them to the side so he can squeeze some mustard on the plate. Instead, he watches Sarah's retreating back before sliding over to her side of the booth, pushing her inward.

"Oh my god, you complete dork," she snorts, "only teenagers do this kind of thing," she bumps him with her shoulder. She knows he doesn't miss the way she chews her upper lip to keep from laughing, or that she doesn't shift away after she bumps him with her shoulder.

"Forgive me for wanting to sit next to my wife," he scoffs, "next time I'll order us at least three tables apart."

"Not your wife in this century, buddy."

"Oh, I beg to differ," he reaches for the hand where she still wears the thin silver band. "You were so adamant about this thing, and I had absolutely no idea why. It would be centuries before I understood the significance."

"I think what matters is that you still got it for me, even though you didn't know what it meant."

"What a strong little thing," he mutters, smoothing his thumb against the band, "that ties you so strongly to a monster like me." He grins up at her, flashing teeth.

"When is a monster not a monster? Oh," she pauses, holding his gaze, "oh when you love it."

* * *

So when she'd picked Boston, she hadn't been expecting the winters to be so damn cold. And despite her whining to Klaus about him skinning her a moose or something, he had yet to actually do it. She did find a lot of ridiculously warm coats in her closet, though. Today was one of those days where she stepped out of the lecture hall and her whole face immediately went numb.

"I'm so sick of this weather," she groans, pulling her zipper up as high as it would go.

"You're telling me," Rebekah grumbles. When she'd heard that Caroline and Klaus were moving to Boston so Caroline could actually go to school, Rebekah had already enrolled herself. She'd groaned about Caroline's topics of study but had decided that another history degree couldn't hurt. The two sat next to each other in their 16th Century Political Theories class, as well as their Chinese Empire class. "Coffee?"

"Yea," Caroline agrees, "Klaus said he was going to be a couple minutes late. Apparently Ellie knocked another little boy over and they wanted to have a parent conference. I told the teacher I had class but she insisted," she rolls her eyes. She generally tried to keep Klaus away from the administration, limiting his time to pick up and drop off.

"What I wouldn't give to be a fly on that wall," Rebekah sighs wistfully, pushing the door to the school coffee shop open. Caroline picks a table, it's crowded enough that the open one she knows is right next to the heater would be taken before she and Rebekah had even made their order.

"Here," Rebekah pushes to cup in front of her, hanging her purse on the side of her chair. "I assume my brother got back well enough this morning?"

"He got back after I dropped Ellie off this morning," Caroline takes a sip of the coffee. It's a mocha and she's sure Rebekah is a mind reader. "Is it...sorry, he doesn't talk to me about these trips, how'd it go?"

Caroline had asked Klaus to leave her mostly in the dark when it came to his supernatural dealings, at least in the meantime. She would ask every so often and he would give her a very glossed over version of what had been happening or where he'd gone. He left most of the dirty work to his hybrids or a few of his older vampire employees, one of the compromises he'd agreed to make, only leaving to take care of what required his influence.

"Not well," Rebekah admits, "he and Elijah were fine, of course, but repercussions needed to be taken in the city. The man he'd left in charge, Marcel, they were close. We were all close at one point. Klaus practically raised the poor sod."

"Oh, I didn't...is he ok emotionally?" He'd left the week before, and despite the noodle necklace Ellie had made him, still seemed a bit down. His texts had been few and far between, although he did make sure to call for a few minutes at night.

"You talk with him more than I do," Rebekah reminds her, "you'll have to ask him." Caroline sighs and Rebekah frowns at how put out her sister in law looks. "Look, Caroline," she pauses, "you know my brother and I have had our difficulties over the years and I do realize that some of his actions are based on fears that he can't control. I'd never tell him that because I have plenty of reason to hold a grudge against him for so many things, but at the end of it all, I do love him. Speaking honestly, there is no great redemption plot for him, he's a man who has done terrible things and feels little to no regret other than not killing some of his adversaries sooner. Despite that fact to you still love him for the man he is, you shy away from the monster that he is as well. The clock is ticking, Caroline, you need to learn to love the monster too."

She can't quite make herself meet Rebekah's boring gaze, but Caroline knows she's right. The past three and a half years had been about reconciling with the man she'd been forced to leave and coming to accept the monster he'd become in the centuries past. She knew what he sometimes got up to during the day when she had class and their daughter had school, but having a vague idea and accepting it were two entirely different topics.

The agreement had been graduation. She pouted about it feeling a little too high school vampire novel, but Klaus had made a valid argument. She'd be happy to have her degree, they could disappear for a little while without any questions while Ellie spent the Summer at Liz's with Rebekah playing the backup babysitter, and she'd still be younger than him. Graduation was only three months away, and Caroline had yet to really accept every part of Klaus.

"Mama!" Ellie's squeals, plowing into Caroline. She nearly falls off her chair, it wasn't easy to keep a steady stance when thirty pounds takes you out, but Klaus is suddenly on the other side of her, holding her up. "Mama, Daddy ran _really_ fast and said he's gonna call Uncle Kol to come bother Aunt Bekah."

"Oh, Daddy ran really fast, did he?" She shoots Rebekah an eye roll before turning her sights on Klaus.

"Ellie, my sweet, what have I told you about tattling?"

"Snitches get stitches," she growls, looking entirely too pleased with herself. At this point, the noise levels in the coffee shop had plummeted and everyone had heard her three-year-old daughter giggle maniacally while making a reference she was way too young to understand.

"Good girl," he coos, scooping her up. It's hard not to coo at the bright-eyed little girl with her little blonde curls puffing out from under her kitty toboggan and her kitten paw mittens. Caroline still manages a dark glare at the two of them who are a little too chummy for her liking, "it's a very important lesson to learn."

"Seriously? What else have you been teaching her? This is, oh my god, Klaus," this is no time to be laughing she wants to tell him, but settles for giving him a hard whack on the arm. She's got more serious threats to dole out, "next time, I'm picking out the books you have to read."

"No," he groans, "I can't take anymore Peppa Pig."

"Quit your bitching, Daddy," Ellie smacks a startled looking Klaus lightly on the face with her kitten mitten before he breaks out in laughter again.

"That one is all you," he manages, pointing an accusatory finger. Caroline has to bite her lip to keep from joining in, but despite the fact that their 3-year-old had just cursed, little Ellie smacking the most terrifying supernatural creature in the world with a kitten mitten was just a little too much.

"You two are disgusting," Rebekah sneers.

* * *

She should have known.

Klaus was normally in their bedroom after she showered, reading or sketching in his big chair by the window. He claimed that he wasn't so mundane to have his own dedicated chair, but he sat in it nearly every night and so Caroline called it his. He wasn't there tonight though, she'd found him in the office, sprawled on the couch in front of the fire and nursing a bourbon.

Rebekah was right, this trip must have been difficult.

She approaches him quietly, he can hear her she knows, but the situation called for careful steps. Pulling his glass from his hand and setting it on the side table, she sits and pulls him down so his head is in her lap.

They'd been intimate since they'd moved to Boston. Obviously sexually, but increasing they'd been more intimate in the way they interacted entirely. Some nights he would comb her hair after her shower and others she would lay beside him for what felt like hours, running her nails up and down his back. They hadn't done this though, not since he'd been human at least she thinks, absentmindedly running a hand through his hair.

"How was your trip?" She asks softly after a few minutes.

"Difficult, but necessary. Everyone cowed into obedience well enough," he speaks slow and quiet. This was often how she'd get him to relax after a hard day of working beside his father, something about it soothed his terrifying temper.

"Do you want to tell me more?" His eyes snap open to meet hers, she never usually asked anything more. She gives him a sweet smile and his eyes close again, satisfied by her interest.

"Not tonight," he mutters. She hums a response, she doubts she'll ever hear anything more, but the offer was there. The fire has almost died down before she speaks again.

"Will I look like you?" Her other hand moves to trace his cheek, to smooth her thumb under his eye.

"No," he opens his eyes again, but this time they're yellow, "your's will be black," he reaches up and traces a similar pattern under her own eyes. "And your teeth will be slightly different," his hand moves to trace her bottom lip and he flashes his own teeth, "but you will be glorious."

Leaning down slowly, she presses her lips to his, yellow eyes watching her every movement carefully. It won't take three months for her to be ready to face this, maybe not even three years, but sometimes love is jumping off a fucking cliff without looking what awaits you at the bottom.

* * *

"When is a monster not a monster?

Oh, when you love it,"

-Caitlyn Siehl


End file.
